Their home was on a hill, and she pulled up behind a car at the top of the road, where there was a slight curve. In this position, she could see down the pavement to the house, but her vehicle was more or less hidden. Fiona would be coming from the other direction to collect the girls, so there was no danger of Sara being spotted. She sat for a moment looking at the street of gritstone terraces, with their neat gardens and tidy hedges, sadness infusing her very bones. There were two blocks of five houses on each side of the road, a gap between each block giving access to the backs of the houses where the garages were. It all looked so normal, so benign. Who could tell that at number 5, there was a family being torn in two?

Ten minutes later, Fiona drew up in her huge black 4x4 and jumped out of the driver’s seat, dressed in skinny jeans and a T-shirt, her blonde hair gleaming in the sun. Sara grabbed the kids’ binoculars that Ezra used for wildlife watching up on the moors, wanting to get a better look.

Fiona rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, Matt answered and ushered her inside. That’s my house, Sara thought. I should be there with my children, not out here watching. Anger burned in her heart as she watched her daughters come out and hug their father goodbye before getting in the car, Fiona fussing about with bags, making sure they were all neatly stowed in the boot.

Once the girls were settled, Fiona ran back to the house and went inside, the door closing behind her. Sara frowned. What was she doing? Had they forgotten something? Five minutes later, she came back out again, Matt behind her. He stood on the doorstep leaning against the frame, hands in his pockets, watching Fiona walk back to the car.

Does she look a little flustered? Flushed. Sara changed her focus to Matt, studying his familiar face. A face she’d woken up to almost every day for the last eighteen years. A face that… Is that a smudge of lipstick? Her heart skipped a beat and she dropped the binoculars as her mind came to the obvious conclusion. Fiona and Matt? By the time she’d picked the binoculars up off the floor to have another look, Fiona was pulling away from the kerb, doing a neat three-point turn while Matt gave the girls a cheery wave. He watched the car until it turned right at the end of the road, then disappeared inside the house. The front door shut.